Once you have digitized your image, you can click on the Bitmaps button in the top toolbar (or use the keyboard shortcut “D”) to hide your original artwork so you can only see your digitized embroidery.

Notes for Raster Images

When using Auto-Digitize for raster images, you want to be careful to avoid overly complex images. Complex images, with many tiny sections of color, end up getting broken up into lots of segmented sections of stitching. Each section of stitching requires a knot in the thread at either end of the section. When too many tiny sections stack up in close proximity to one another, the mass of knots can become tangled on the back side of the fabric. This can lead to fabric bunching, thread breaking, and needle breaking.

You can simplify an image by tracing the file in Illustrator, as well as reducing the number of threads used in auto-digitizing.

Fig 7 - Raster Auto-Digitizing Examples

For raster images, you have two additional options other than Auto-Digitize.

PhotoSnap will create a single color line-based stitch of your image, using variations in line thickness to denote darker and lighter tones.

Color PhotoStitch will create a multicolor weave of thread to stitch out your image. You can adjust the number of thread colors used similar to Auto-Digitize.